This invention relates to means for encapsulating a filler with dough. Various products in the form of dough envelopes containing a filler are an important segment of the processed food industry. Ravioli, won ton, pierogies and kreplach are popular examples of pasta-type products while apple dumplings are illustrative of baked products.
Many of these products are made by hand or with devices that require stepwise operation. Ravioli have perhaps received the greatest attention and efforts to develop machinery for their rapid production. Currently, a sheet of fresh pasta receives spaced gobs of filler such as ricotta or ground meat and another sheet of fresh pasta is laid thereover. The two pasta sheets are pressed together around each gob of filler so that each filler gob is sealed between the pasta sheets. Then a cutter is used to cut around each dough-encapsulated filler gob to yield individual ravioli. In short, the food industry is still seeking simple apparatus for the rapid manufacture of filled dough products.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a simple apparatus for the rapid production of dough capsules containing a filler.
Another important object is to provide such an apparatus in a compact arrangement of three rollers.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows.